I recently download and installed Zorin os on my laptop and managed to get the internet working. I was using it for a couple of days until the laptop was unresponsive. I ended up contacting the malefaction (HP) to get the laptop repaired. The service report states "there was an interruption during BIOS update, which cause no display". I am scared to go back to zorin because I need my laptop for University and I cant have this happen again. Can you explain what the cause of this fault could be? Is it safe to reinstall Zorin?
Installing Zorin should not affect the BIOS. if you have BIOS on "auto update" uncheck it. Flashing a BIOS is always dangerous - it can render laptop useless, but that do not have anything with Zorin. Using a Windows can do the some if you turn off laptop during update.
It can't have been the fault of Zorin OS... HP only provides BIOS / UEFI updates for consumer-grade PCs in Windows-specific .EXE format, so to update the BIOS, one must boot Windows (either an installed version or a PE LiveCD version), run that .EXE file from HP and update the BIOS.
The .EXE file from HP for BIOS / UEFI updating won't even try to run under Linux, it'll try but crash before it even gets fully started under Wine or PlayOnLinux because it doesn't have direct hardware access.
I've been running Zorin 16 on my Asus laptop since 16s original release. The machine is dual boot with windows (for gaming). Every time I boot win to play, I check the Asus proprietary, win only software for updates. That is how I manage to keep the bios updated. Since the software has no Linux alternative, the is no way for the bios to update otherwise, it won't even check.
What does this mean? The tech has no idea what he's talking about and is blaming you and your use of Linux as a scapegoat.
Hi Harvey,
Secure boot was turn off also bit-locker. I always turn off fast boot because I don't like it. When it was working it always went to the grub menu. When I say "unresponsive" the best example is "the lights were on but no body was home". The screen technically turned on but it it displayed nothing (Black). the fan was going and the lights on the key board were working as well. However, nothing was loading, not even the HP symbol or Zorin. Do you think it is safe to attempt it again? Because I am scared that I am going to disable my laptop.
It is almost impossible to "brick" a laptop. While you can cause it to not boot, it is always possible to recover as long as there isn't hardware failure.
In order to resolve why it black screened, we'll need more information regarding how you installed, the laptop specs and how old the hardware is. Without this we would be shooting in the dark.
HP laptops can be finicky based on the hardware installed. This is most likely the issue that caused the black screen. You may need a grub flash added to boot correctly or another driver installed. Won't know until more info is provided.
My kid just did that not too long ago... older Dell computer with a button-cell battery to preserve the BIOS settings, a laptop without the main battery installed (because the battery had gone bad), the kid shut down, then unplugged it to move it before it'd completely shut off... the button-cell battery, apparently, is also bad, so the BIOS wasn't preserved, it was scrambled. Now it won't even boot into the BIOS setup.
I downloaded Zorin and used rufus to flash a usb. I had bit locker disable because in the past I locked myself out of my windows account and disabled fast start up. Once everything is set up on windows I shut down my laptop and place the usb in. I turn on the computer while pressing esc (thats how i get into my bios). I cant remember if this is when I turned off secure boot then restarted or if I went into Zorin? Zorin wasn't working because of the type of internet chip I have, I think you can see the discussion if you go onto my profile? That was when secure boot was 100% off. It was working for maybe a week then the computer was unresponsive. The way that I made a partition was through Zorins split thingy. I gave it 70GB. My laptop was purchased in late December 2022. So I'm really hoping its not the battery. Its a HP Pavilion. HP fixed it under warranty.
In the live image of Zorin, use the disks or gparted application to look at the partitions. If there is no Zorin partition (sounds like they restored from an image).
If you are planning on removing Zorin later, don't overwrite the Windows Boot Manager partition, instead create an EFI partition of 500MB and place Grub there. This will require you choose the boot device (The bios will automatically choose the first bootable EFI partition), unless you change the boot order in the bios. If you choose to change the boot order, you should still be able to access windows from Grub.
There is nothing that should have caused the black screen. There has been an issue with that on occasion, usually because of the GPU. It's not necessarily a brick of the machine, but it may take some troubleshooting to resolve.
Up to you whether you attempt again or not. I would not recommend using the alongside method (this has caused issues at times).
@Winnie26 The best way to experience Zorin OS along side Windows is to use Ventoy boot to Virtual Disk Plugin.VtoyBoot . Ventoy
Depending on your Linux skills it's should be easy to accomplish, to summarize the tutorial, you would need to:
Install Zorin os on Virtual box with a large enough fixed sized disk (minimum 40Gb)
Create a vlink file and copy it to your ventoy usb drive. vlnk . Ventoy
Boot from ventoy usb and choose your zorin os vdisk.
The only downside you need usb/sdcard to boot to your linux distro, the upside no need for partitioning or windows dual boot grub hassle.
I have been daily driving Zorin os for a couple of weeks on a Lenovo laptop using this method and just today I did a bios update initiated by gnome Software utility, I was a bit freaked out but it went just fine.
Zorin os so far has been rock solid stable, fast and efficient. One major advantage compared to Windows, is that my laptop's CPU stay cool and fan don't run as much, unless I am running some games or a CPU demanding application.
I was really sick and tired of Windows and Lenovo bloatware services and updates contently running in the background slowing and degrading my laptop.